News from ITC West 2007

An abundance of product announcements shared the stage with 100-plus conference sessions.

After sojourning last autumn in sunny San Diego, the Internet Telephony Conference and Expo returned north to the Los Angeles Convention Center this week, where an expected 7,500 attendees saw the latest in IP telephony and convergence systems and applications. And confirming that this industry has entered the technical mainstream were over 100 conference sessions that explored unified communications, service provider solutions, wireless and mobility applications, fixed/mobile convergence, and IPTV.

The conference was co-located with the first annual Green Technology World Conference, which was billed as a first-of-its-kind event focusing on modern technologies that could help companies minimize environment-unfriendly business practices. Conference sessions highlighted the benefits of a virtual workforce, teleworking, teleconferencing, and energy reduction in data centers, undoubtedly sparking attention from the road warriors in attendance who are weary of the flight delays and cancellations from this past summer.

Buzz from the Internet Telephony Conference included announcements of new product offerings from:

Paraxip Technologies, launched its NetBorder Software Suite, designed to facilitate deployment of SIP-based solutions in contact centers and enterprises. The product is a VoIP session and media controller that combines the features of media gateways, session controllers, and media servers with powerful scripting engines to simplify and accelerate the deployment of sophisticated SIP-based applications. NetBorder is designed as a new enterprise product class and consists of a suite of software modules that combine to provide critical network connectivity, signaling harmonization, media processing, media conversion, and call control scripting to seamlessly integrate IP telephony applications.

VoSKY announced a new, fully integrated version of their flagship product, VoSKY Exchange, a family of VoIP gateways that optimize Skype for use in a business environment. VoSKY Exchange is also the only enterprise-grade PBX-to-Skype gateway that has earned Skype certification, ensuring seamless interoperability with that networks features and services. Exchange adds up to 16 Skype lines to a PBX, and extends the benefits of Skype to every extension in the office.

Intuitive Voice Technology introduced Version 3.0 of its Evolution PBX software that is available in three versions: Basic, Professional, and Platinum. The Evolution PBX is an Asterisk-based IP PBX that runs on the Linux platform, and enables Voice-over-IP service providers and telecom solution resellers to deliver highly advanced PBX features to the business and enterprise customer at an affordable cost. The companys goal is to package best-of-breed technology and practices in an easy-to-use, intuitive interface, thus allowing small businesses, entrepreneurs, and sales professionals to have a communications system that functions similar to the million-dollar PBX systems FORTUNE 500 companies use.

Clarus Systems, Inc. announced the addition of a voice monitoring module to an enhanced version of its flagship application, ClarusIPC®. The new ClarusIPC Plus+ includes a Voice Monitor module to help users monitor voice quality, service availability, and security conditions through the use of a sophisticated rules and policy engine. The new Voice Monitor module uses a rules-based template of custom-defined policies to monitor system availabilityincluding proper call routing, dropped/rejected calls, and suspicious calls. In addition, Voice Monitor will help enforce voice quality standards by utilizing the most accurate (K-factor) Mean Opinion Score (MOS) metrics. For increased usability, Voice Monitor can apply different policies at varying times of day and days of the week, as well as generating alerts and notifications via SNMP or e-mail when policy violations occur.

Comverse Technology, Inc. announced the launch of MyCall® Converged Communications for the American market, a service that delivers consumer telephony and messaging with a unified user interface, over fixed broadband and mobile networks. By combining fixed-mobile telephony with messaging, MyCall lets operators deploy consumer communications seamlessly across users' PC, home phone, and mobile device for a unified, converged customer interface, and offer attractive, cost-effective voice, video, and messaging service bundles. Subscribers can use a similar user interface on a PC or a mobile phone to access all communication and messaging services, including telephony, SMS, MMS, IM, and presence. The same number can be used to call all deviceswhich share a contact listand all the services use the same billing mechanism.

NeoPhonetics announced the launch of its Asterisk-Business-Editionbased unified messaging platform that works with a variety of legacy TDM and IP PBX systems, including those from Avaya, Cisco, NEC, and Nortel. The platform is targeted at enterprises that are looking to add unified messaging capabilities, such as voicemail-to-e-mail, SMS messaging, or call forwarding features. Adding this platform eliminates the need to replace existing PBX systems that still work well, but lack the advanced communications capabilities that end users may require.

Author's Biography Mark A. Miller, P.E., is President of DigiNet Corporation®, a Denver-based consulting engineering firm. He is the author of many books on networking technologies, including Voice over IP Technologies, and Internet Technologies Handbook, both published by John Wiley & Sons.

Mark A. Miller, P.E. is President of DigiNetB. Corporation, a Denver-based consulting engineering firm. He is the author of many books on networking technologies, including Voice over IP Technologies, and Internet Technologies Handbook, both published by John Wiley & Sons.

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